What are Marketplace Simulations?

Let your students experiment with marketing strategies in an engaging game-like exercise. They launch new products to the market and manage the entire product life cycle, from introduction to growth to maturity. Learning content is gradually and purposefully introduced as the market evolves.

Core Learning Content

Marketing Strategy

Develop, execute, and refine marketing strategies. Students price, promote, and distribute a portfolio of brands to target segments based upon their needs, market potential, price points and competitive pressures.

Internet Marketing

Learn the essentials of organic versus paid internet marketing. Students discover the
importance of keywords for search engine optimization, compete for clicks, respond to web
analytics, and develop a comprehensive social media strategy.

Sales

Create a global expansion strategy based on market potential, costs, and available resources.

Profitability

Plan current period expenses based upon projected sales and planned marketing activities. Profitability reports are available for the firm and individual brands. Students are given seed money to launch the business and must manage their resources in the face of dynamic market conditions.

Entrepreneurship

Start up and run a new marketing division for a large international technology company. Students face new challenges, decisions, and information as they naturally unfold over the life-cycle of the product and division.

Introduces the basic concepts of marketing. Based on customer needs, students formulate an initial marketing strategy and make brand, price, advertising, and distribution decisions. Customer feedback, competitor data, and profitability reports challenge students to adjust their strategy in a dynamic and highly competitive environment.

Strategic Marketing takes the intro marketing decisions to a higher level. There are more market segments, brand and advertising options, sales outlets and market reports. It includes more resource planning and advanced marketing techniques such as brand promotions and sales force incentives.

Compared to Strategic Marketing, this simulation offers more complex market research data, a greater number of regions to enter and more options in brand design and advertising. It is marketing at its fullest.

Educational level

Ideal for novice marketing undergrads, even non-majors

Third and fourth year undergraduates

Advanced undergraduate and MBA students

Decision rounds

6 decision rounds of 30-60 minutes

8 decision rounds of 1-2 hours

Class size

Small to large classes (1000+) of marketing and non-marketing majors

Smaller classes of marketing majors. Up to 8 teams per game, 4 – 6 teams of 4 students is optimal.

Languages

English, Portuguese (BR), French

English

English

Instructor Involvement

Little effort is required to help students with Marketplace. The simulations illustrate and
reinforce the major concepts of marketing. Lectures can tie together student experiences and
course content, but they are optional. Student work is self-guided with an intuitive interface,
lectures, help files, as well as supplementary Marketplace Microsimulations™ which explore
key concepts on a more basic level. A balanced scorecard is used for student feedback,
management by the numbers, and grading.

For the more advanced simulations, instructor/student interaction is encouraged. Students
are highly receptive to coaching, targeted lectures, and exercises that enhance their strategic
planning and marketing skills. A variety of presentations, coaching tips, and exercises are
provided to help instructors.

The new Marketplace bike edition of the Strategic Marketing simulation is impressive and my students are really enjoying it! With the addition of Internet Marketing, all are learning about the advantages of organic versus paid online advertising. Marketplace simulations have added enormous value to my marketing strategy course.

Accessibility

MARKETPLACE, MARKETPLACE LIVE, MARKETPLACE SIMULATIONS, and the Globe Design are trademarks of Ernest Cadotte and Innovative Learning Solutions, Inc., and may not be used or reproduced without permission. Copyright 2018 Innovative Learning Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.